


What Has To Be Done

by catpanflowers



Category: Naruto
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-27
Updated: 2019-10-27
Packaged: 2021-01-04 22:21:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21205010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/catpanflowers/pseuds/catpanflowers
Summary: She was on a good luck streak. She was on the same team as Sasuke-kun. She had passed Kakashi-sensei's test. She was on her way to becoming the top kunoichi. Turns out that luck was actually just biased political maneuvering and now that her team has fallen apart and she is left with only herself to rely on she finds it's not enough. Not enough for her and definitely not enough for her best friend who just died because of it. Moved to the Genin Corps, Sakura falls into something she isn't ready for and can only barely keep her head above water as she's pulled down by conspiracies and secrets. This was supposed to be easier than being a field ninja!





	What Has To Be Done

Chapter 1 - Regret

Haruno Sakura didn't know what she was doing. She didn't know why she thought she could be a shinobi. Didn't know why she thought she could just skim by on her picture perfect memory. Didn't know why she couldn't do anything during her mission but cry at her losses. Ino and almost Shikamaru. And then almost her and Choji too because of her incompetence. It had gone horribly wrong from the simple delivery mission it was supposed to be. With Tsunade just officiated as Hokage and trying to maintain a front of strength despite the losses in the battle against Sand and Orochimaru, low level, short missions were still being carried out. It was best to keep most higher-level ninja in the village in case of another attack and the lower leveled nin took breaks from rebuilding through quick money missions. That was what they were doing. As per Kakashi-sensei's request he was put back on the ANBU roster and that was the end of Team 7. 

So she was a stray and wouldn't have even gone on a mission if it weren't for Ino requesting her to fill in for their fourth member. With Shikamaru being a newly minted chunin he was made team captain and within an hour they were off to hot springs. They made it there perfectly fine if not a little winded on her side but on the way back they had to veer closer to the rice border to avoid a storm. They had a run in with sound ninja with horrifying mutations and no mercy. And she was getting beat soundly. And as the nin picked her up by her broken leg she screamed and was thrown straight into Ino. They fell to the ground and as they helped each other up Ino saw her opponent's blade coming down in an arc towards them from over Sakura's shoulder and knew the pink haired girl wouldn't be able to move quick enough with her mangled leg. She twirled around grabbed Sakura's arm to drag her down and out of the way and then all she can remember is blinding pain before everything going black. 

Sakura was dizzy and all she could see was blood. Her whole body hurt and she scrambled to grab another kunai from her pouch but she couldn't seem to feel anything with her right hand. Her mind was still a wreck but she recognized the blonde hair lying in front of her and she screamed as the thick red kept spilling out of the large wound severing the girl's body from her shoulder to her waist. Her baby blue pupiless eyes gazing at nothing. The rest of the fight was a blur to her. She vaguely remembers Shikamaru struggling to hold the final two opponents in his shadow jutsu as Choji went to kill one but the other slipped out of the weakening shadow and Shikamaru couldn't move without compromising Choji's attack. He was stuck with poison needles before he could do anything and although he was able to get the final enemy in his hold just long enough for Choji to have the upper hand, he passed out not soon after. Choji was tired but dragged his best friend over to where Sakura was clutching desperately at Ino's corpse with one hand. 

They both sobbed as he struggled to hold the remnants of the mission together. He didn't want to leave behind Ino's body, but he could only carry one person and that would have to be a living one. But Sakura refused to leave her behind. She was bleeding out and her leg was broken badly, but he did what he could to splint the leg and used a minor katon jutsu to cauterize her arm and he withstood her screams of pain. He knew they would need to leave fast lest they gather the attention of anymore enemy nin so as soon as he was done tending to everyone's wounds he helped Sakura get the blonde onto her back and hoisted Shikamaru onto his and they took off running with a couple soldier pills in their systems. 

They ran for the rest of the day until they got within Fire's border and Sakura couldn't go on. She convinced Choji to continue on as they had no clue how long Shikamaru had left with the poison running through his veins. He reluctantly agreed after she hid herself and the body in a couple of bushes with a weak genjutsu. He made it to the gates just as the moon was rising and there was a big fuss getting them to the hospital and debriefed. He immediately informed them of the situation and the general area in which Sakura was hunkered down before he got some rest in the bed next to a healing Shikamaru. The hokage's apprentice, Shizune-sama, had made quick work of removing the poison from the boy's system and administering the antidote to the commonly used toxin. He awoke late the next day to find Shikamaru awake and crying as he stared at the flowers in the vase between their beds. They talked through and processed what had happened together and grieved. Within the week they were informed when Ino’s funeral would be. 

Sakura was discharged for a couple hours to go to the funeral. She was able to limp around with the aid of a crutch under her left arm and the pain was easing due to the morphine in her system. But her broken leg and phantom arm were nothing to the nightmares of the blonde girl’s blank eyes staring at her through a sea of red as she struggles not to drown. Limbs flailing and each time Sakura tries to save the girl her right arm melts off like wax in the blood and she loses her grip and every time she fails. She wasn’t ready to face Inoichi after his first visit to her in the hospital. He arrived two days after she was brought in. He set a vase of yellow daylilies on the table beside her bed and tried a small sad smile as she glanced over at the noise. “How are you feeling, Sakura-chan?” She scrunched the blankets in her hand and frowned. His daughter is dead and that’s what he cares about? How she’s feeling?! 

She could barely make it through the verbal briefing with the Hokage without breaking down and despite her best efforts to finish her written report without tears she couldn’t do it. And now as the father of her best friend who died because of her inability to finish a fight stood before her, trying to care for her, she burst. She broke down sobbing and begging for his forgiveness for killing his child. The only person he had left, who he loved more than anything after his wife passed soon after childbirth. She knew she had no right to ask him to forgive her but she couldn’t hold in her guilt and grief. He sighed as he shed a few tears with the broken girl. “Sakura, I would like to thank you for bringing her home.” His hand was warm against the top of her head. She stilled at the contact and took in a deep shuddering breath.“She should have come home alive.” She whispered. “It should have been me, Inoichi-san. I was the one who wasn’t strong enough. It's always been me.” She gasped out as she began to cry anew. Gods, she hated being such a crybaby. 

“Sakura-chan, she knew the life she chose when she became a ninja. She did her job by protecting her team. We can’t ask for anything more, this is the shinobi way.” His hand ruffled her dull pink hair and then he pulled away. “Her funeral will be on friday. She would have wanted you to attend.” The girl nodded but couldn’t muster the energy for a farewell that would be appropriate. You can’t exactly tell the man whose daughter recently died because of you to have a “good day”. Inoichi closed the door behind him and went to check in on the boys one last time before getting back to the flower shop. He had a lot of arrangements to make. 

He has been working on autopilot since he got the news and as a mentalist he knew the five trials of grief would catch up to him soon. But he was off duty for the rest of the week and the flower shop has been keeping him relatively busy. The funeral was this afternoon and while he visited Shikamaru and Choji one last time before they were released from the hospital he was unsure if he wanted to see Sakura-chan again so soon. It hurt him to see the girl who was always at his home playing with Ino during the academy days. She reminded him of his little girl and how lively she is… was. The pinkette was a mess the last time he saw her in her white hospital gown making her skin look even more pale and exposing the horrible black and yellow bruises on her face and arms. Where her right arm now only a blistered, swollen mess of red and flame-touched skin. He Knew it would be a long while before he saw her and stopped searching for a head of platinum blonde right next to her. 

The funeral went by without a hitch. His clan was worried about who would be clan head next, but were able to keep the nervous edge surrounding them under wraps as they paid their respects. Their brother clans came to support and grieve with them. The rest of his little girl’s team stood at the front and were teary-eyed the whole time the eulogy was given and even after. He caught a glimpse of Sakura-chan at the very back as she limped in halfway through the ceremony struggling with a single crutch. There wasn’t a blonde straggling behind her.

She could feel so many eyes on her as she wobbled awkwardly up to the final resting place of her friend. It seemed she was the only one here who wasn’t from one of the tightly knit clans besides team eight’s sensei. She was late, but getting there had been a little harder than she thought it would be. Her route went right by the flower shop and despite it being completely dark inside she could still see the ghost of the blonde tending to the plants with a blue apron around her waist. She stared at the window in longing until the ghost looked up and there was fresh blood spilling from her lips and her eyes were empty of life and the deep wound sprayed red against the white lilies her pale limp hands had been arranging. Sakura gagged and backed into the alley across the street to hurl up the meager contents of her stomach. She shakily continued on her way promising to avoid the shop for as long as she could. 

The funeral wasn’t yet over, but she didn’t want to see the end. The body in the casket kept overlapping with her last image of the girl just like it had when she saw her in the shop. She could feel the stares of the boys from team eight but she was too scared to turn around and find out what kind of feelings their eyes held. They probably hate her. She retreated as soon as she gave a quiet prayer and a silent apology. She took the long way back to the hospital and felt the ache of her wounds as the medicine started to wear off. She changed out of the borrowed scrubs and showered before climbing into the uncomfortable bed and trying to sleep. 

She was discharged from the hospital two weeks later. Her bruises are gone and the cuts are all stitched up and scabbed over. The only wound still majorly bothering her was her arm. But that wasn’t really a wound anymore. They healed it as much as they could. They said the scars from the cauterization probably wouldn’t go away for a long time if ever. She didn’t know how she felt about that. She had always been very concerned about her looks. Her mother supposedly had wanted her to grow up to be a lady who would marry into a good civilian clan or so her father had told her. He had bought her a lot of products and make up to try and look the part and had their neighbor, old Kimiko-san, who had once been a diplomat for the daimyo tutor her after school on manners and traditions. The woman died not too soon after her husband, Seiki-san, but she remembers her fondly as the mother she never had. 

Her own father, Kizashi, works a lot going on business trips for the import industry. Luckily he was away during the mess that was the chunin exams.They still lived in the two bedroom apartment that they always had nearing the older parts of the village. She sat on her futon now not really knowing what to do. She had cleaned the place just as she does each time she comes back from a mission. She accidentally broke a lamp when dusting and tried to catch it with her right arm which meant it just ended up shattered on the floor. She was tired of it already. She could feel it there all the time. Pulsing with chakra and blood and even the constant pain at the severed point didn’t disrupt the shadow of a full arm she sometimes saw in the corner of her eye. 

She had another week before she had to report to the hokage's tower. She didn’t know what to do. She had heard some of the nurses talk quietly outside her door about how she would probably be moved to the genin corp. Which wasn’t so bad. That was the backbone of the shinobi system in Konoha. They ran all the government facilities and were basically paper pushers with security clearances. Veterans, although low in numbers, often moved into their ranks just to keep occupied and the genin who didn’t pass onto teams were vetted out once again and either moved to the KGC or the civilian trade school. It wasn’t as big of a paycheck as being a field ninja, but it was enough to make a living on if you got to a high enough rank.

It was by luck... or biased political maneuvering, that she had passed Kakashi-sensei’s test at all, considering all she did was hide and pass out from a simple genjutsu. But they needed three genin as per regulation and to fail the last Uchiha was unwise no matter how you look at it. And she was excited because he was on her team and despite her and Ino’s fallout she had joined in order to become a field ninja with the girl and she was well on her way to her dream. Kakashi-sensei didn’t really teach them or at least her. They did d-rank missions most of the time and if not that then he had them participate in matches. Well, not her, but the boys at least while he had her do kunai practice or basic exercises. 

He whisked Sasuke-kun away during the chunin exams for special training and she remembers Naruto bragging about a new technique for Shadow Clone Bombs that the silver haired man had briefly taught the boy to keep him out of his hair. Other than learning how to climb up trees with chakra which came like second nature to her she has no new techniques or skills since graduating. The fact that she showed up to the chunin exams and survived while being so blind to her inability is a testament to her luck or position on a politically charged team. And now, with her eyes wide open to the horrors of her ignorance and her friend and dream dead due to it, she regrets.

**Author's Note:**

> This is getting out of control already... Let me know what I can do better on please! 
> 
> Anyways, here's some notes about some decisions I've made on certain things and how the genin corps work.
> 
> 1\. Broken legs can take 4-6 months to heal, but with med-nins the process should be much quicker. Despite the lack of experts at the hospital on normal shifts they are able to do little sessions to enhance the healing. She is basically non-essential personnel at this point due to her no longer having her right arm so they are able to put her lower on the list of healing time in order to put their resources towards more important ninja and noblemen.
> 
> 2.Officially calling it The Konoha Genin Corp or KGC for short. Despite the name they have their own ranks, but are not named chunin or jounin because those are combat able ninja.
> 
> 3.The KGC are all Genin ranked in combat ability (bad at it) and while they still have the normal Konoha headband they have additional identifying markings. Based on the Chinese zodiac which is also used in Nippon these animal symbols show ranking. From lowest to highest ranking: Boar, Wolf, Rooster, Monkey, Buck, Horse, Snake, Dragon, Rabbit, Tiger, Ox, and Rat. As personnel rank up they get higher clearance level allowing them to work with top secret material which they must go through specific training for the handling of such materials, how to avoid capture by evasion or suicide, and the possibility of kidnapping and torture scenarios.


End file.
